Staff Profiles
Charles Douglas
Policy and Implementation Officer — BCCharles (“Corkey”) is a member of the Cheam First Nation, a member community of the Sto:lo Nation who are Coast Salish People located on the southwest corner of BC and lower southeast area of Vancouver Island. He is third youngest of twenty children born to Albert and Edna Douglas. He now lives in Burnaby, BC with wife and best friend Frankie and has six children and four grandsons.
At the age of twenty-five, he ran for council and was elected for the first of five consecutive two year terms at Cheam. The last term he was elected as Chief. Throughout this ten year period he held the health and social development portfolio and the finance portfolio for the Sto:lo Tribal Council and sat on Aboriginal Advisory Committee to Van City Savings and Credit Union. Corkey also represented Cheam and the Sto:lo people on fisheries issues with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and was and still is a strong advocate for Aboriginal Rights and Title and Treaty Rights.
After leaving the political realm, Corkey made a decision to return back to school and pursue the education. In 1996 he was accepted into the Bachelor of Arts in First Nations studies at Malaspina University/College in Nanaimo, BC. After graduating with the degree form Malaspina, he applied and was accepted in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria, where he earned his L.L.B.
Corkey is very grateful to all those who assisted and encouraged him in these endeavors. He feels that Aboriginal People, however they wish to define themselves, are just scratching the surface of the potential they have to govern themselves. In echoing the words of the Steven Point, the first Aboriginal appointed as Lieutenant-Governor of B.C: Self-government is becoming a reality. We are taking on more jurisdiction, more responsibilities. We are becoming self-governing. These words ring so true and is the reason Corkey was drawn to the work being done at the National Centre for First Nations Governance and feels fortunate to be working at the Centre.
